Half of the new Neighborhood Market stores are located in California, with stores opening Wednesday in Vacaville, San Diego, Vallejo, Pleasanton and Torrance.

Union members and sympathizers were scheduled to hold a rally outside the Pleasanton Neighborhood Market Wednesday to "welcome the company" to the Northern California city.

According to a spokesman for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, the rally included "a broad coalition of concerned community, labor and political groups," in order to "highlight the vast number of abuses perpetrated by Wal-Mart on the communities in which they locate."